Threatened Rock?

While Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's Government last week had its hands full defending Britain's domestic air defenses, from another quarter it was questioned on the security of nothing less than "The Rock'' itself. Was the Prime Minister aware, asked Her Grace the Duchess of Atholl, Conservative M. P., that Spanish Rightist Generalissimo Franco, with Italian and German aid, has so fortified the Spanish seacoast overlooking Gibraltar as to make this keystone of empire practically worthless?

The Duchess' disclosure had an air of authenticity because she is an M. P. who gets around, keeps her ears and eyes open. Since 1923 she has been a member from the backward Scottish agricultural constituency of West Perth and Kinross. At the outbreak of the two-year-old war in Spain, she refused to take sides. Year later she became publicly pro-Leftist, accepted the chairmanship of Britain's National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief and inaugurated the scheme which brought 4,000 Leftist moppets as refugees to England. Last April she resigned as Government whip, now votes against Mr. Chamberlain as an Independent Conservative. In the last year she has bustled down to Leftist territory, gleaned enough material to write a book,* with a few items left over to toss last week at the harried Prime Minister.

According to the 64-year-old Duchess, the Rightists have planted more than 20 large guns of German make in the hills around Algeciras, commanding Gibraltar; a number of long-range 5.9-inch weapons have been installed along the coast "so placed that they could drop shells in Gibraltar but yet are invisible from the highest point on the rock": nine naval-type guns are located on Punta Carnero, on the west side of Gibraltar bay, and at least one 15-inch weapon on a high peak near Alcala de los Gazules, some 40 miles inland; 45 more guns, ranging in size from six to 15 inches, have been set up in Spanish Morocco, on the African coastline directly across from the fortress.

In any but so trying a week as last the Duchess' charges, which she phrased as a formal question, would have elicited the usual day-later answer from the Prime Minister, but by next day the Sandys storm had swept over the House, burying the Duchess' question beneath it.

*SEARCHLIGHT on SPAIN--Penguin Books Limited, Middlesex, England.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.